A Change in Heart
by HopeInMyHeart
Summary: A sleepless night, and a surprise heart to heart between sisters.


**Spoiler alert- Do not read if you have not seen the sneak peeks and MASSIVE leak posted yesterday. **

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"_So now, you're a hero?"_ Zelena's words echo through Regina's mind for the umpteenth time that night. She sits up and runs her hands through her hair. What the _hell_ was the matter with her? Why could she simply not shake the events that had occurred so many hours earlier. She had saved the day, the baby was safe, her existence, in tact, and her sister was now powerless. Regina had made sure of that when she destroyed Zelena's magic pendant herself.

She could not get the image of Zelena, powerless and defeated, lying on the floor of the barn urging Rumple to just kill her already. She rubbed her temples, turning her decision over and over again in her mind. Why had she spared her sister? Certainly, Zelena had done more than enough to warrant Rumple finishing her off right there.

Regina placed a hand over her heart, and glanced at Robin, deep in the kind of exhausted sleep that epic conclusions to harrowing adventures brings. She thought back to when he held her heart that afternoon, she could feel a change. And when she allowed him to replace it back inside her chest, she knew something was different. Allowing someone to love her had healed her own heart.

In this very moment, she almost wished her heart had remained dark and damaged. _"Caring about people is a dangerous business,"_ she thinks to herself. And she desperately wished she did not care about what her sister might or might not be thinking or feeling on this dark winter's night.

She glanced over at the clock on her bedside table. 3:27 am. And yet, somehow, she knew Zelena would be wide awake at home. Fuming. Pacing. Hurting. It's what she had done for many years after days like this. The only difference being, nobody had ever robbed Regina of all of her power. By now, Regina would have been plotting her next move.

But that Regina was gone.

She knew she needed to see her sister. Immediately.

"_I really must be going crazy"_ she murmurs to herself as she quietly slips out of bed, hoping upon hope that by the time she gets back, Robin will still be deeply sleeping.

* * *

Regina had spared her.

_Spared her. _

Zelena sat, in her desolate and barren kitchen, her back firmly braced against the wooden kitchen chair. She had long given up on sleep. How does someone sleep after a day like the one she had just been through?

Her eyes were red and swollen, and her body bruised from the beat down she had been put through in the barn. She winced as she brushed the raw, bruised skin on her neck, scraped terribly when Regina had ripped her pendant off her neck. And worst of all, her power was gone. She could no longer "magic" herself out of terrible situations.

She glanced at the grandfather clock on the kitchen wall. 3:42 am.

And a moment later, she was shocked to see a pair of headlights nearing her driveway.

With no monkeys around to defend her, Zelena defensively searched for a blunt object to protect her with. Grabbing a skillet off the wall, she cautiously peered out the kitchen window.

She was half relieved, half terrified, and completely confused as to why, of all people, her sister had shown up at her house in the middle of the night.

Zelena breathed hard. She was certain that these are the last moments of her pathetic life.

Regina must certainly have changed her mind. And now, she was clearly here to kill her. Why else would she come visiting at 3:45 in the morning? She could make quick work, turn Zelena into a crushable creature in the dead of night and be done with it. And everyone would laud her; she'd be the ultimate hero.

And who could blame Regina for wanting to get rid of her? No one else had wanted Zelena. Why should this be any different?

Regina pounded on the door. _"Zelena! Open up!"_

Zelena set down the skillet, mentally accepting that this was in fact, the end.

She wiped her eyes and fluffed her hair, remembering what her wretched drunk of a father had always taught her. To put on her best face, no matter what the circumstances. She would greet death as she had greeted life. Stoic and fearless looking. No one would ever know the damage, the pain, and the anguish that consumed her.

She slowly opened the front door to her sister, and instinctively squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for death.

"What… are you doing?" Regina rolls her eyes. "You think I'm here to kill you, don't you?"

Zelena dared to open one eye. "Aren't you?"

"If I wanted you dead, I'd have let Rumple finish you off 12 hours ago, Zelena."

"How do I know you haven't gone and changed your mind?"

"You opened the door" Regina shrugged with the hint of a faint smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

"That doesn't mean anything" Zelena continued to stand defensively in the doorway, her arms crossed against her body. "Maybe I don't care if you kill me. Everyone would be better off."

"You don't get off that easy, Zelena. And I honestly don't think you actually want to die."

"You don't know me."

Regina sighed. "Can I just come in? I swear to you, I'm unarmed. I'm in sweat pants for crying out loud. If I was here to murder you, I'd at least have the decency to dress."

Zelena chewed the inside of her cheek, and moved so that Regina could enter the house.

"Then why are you here, if not to murder me, Regina?"

"I don't really know. I needed to just… talk."

"Zelena shook her head in disbelief. "About what? We have nothing to talk about, Regina. You win. You _exist._ I _lose._ I'm powerless. What else is there to discuss?"

"Plenty." Regina murmured quietly. "We're not as different as you might think, Zelena."

Zelena shook her head. "Like I said, you have no idea what my life has been like. To feel robbed, and destroyed, and abandoned and lied to, time and time again, Regina. That's been my whole life. All the while, knowing that someone else got _everything."_

"She killed my first true love, Zelena" Regina spat out, cutting her off. "She ripped out his heart. In front of me. She crushed it before my eyes. She married me off to a king twice my age, who didn't love me, but tolerated me on his best day. You idealize Cora because you never knew her. She manipulated and lied and cheated, and if you want the real truth, I may have spared you today, but _she _ spared _you._ By sending you away. She did you a favor, big sister. And if you took two seconds to look past the end of your own nose and open your mind, you'd have maybe, just maybe, had an easier time in your own life.

For the first time in her life, Zelena stands speechless.

"She wasn't the perfect mother you desperately wish she was." Regina continued quietly.

"I didn't… "

"I know. "

Zelena reached for a chair to sit down across the table. Her arms still defensively crossed as she sits.

"She really did that? She ripped out—

"Yes."

Zelena let out a slow breath. "My whole life, I had this image in my head of Cora. And you, and how wonderful your life was."

"I know, Zelena."

Zelena's eyes filled with tears. "There's nothing that can erase what I've done. I still don't understand why you didn't let him kill me, Regina."

Regina sighed. "Because there was a time, not long ago, where I was in your shoes, Zelena. In truth, I've probably done just as much damage, ruined as many lives, if not more, than you have, big sister.

"I killed your son's father."

"Well Zelena. I killed his grandfather." Regina countered quietly.

Zelena looked across the table, incredulously. "What do you mean?"

"To enact the first curse. I killed my own father"

Again, Zelena is stunned back into silence.

"I told you, we're not all that different, sis."

Zelena sniffed and shook her head. "There's no redemption for me. I'm better off dead."

"Some people might agree."

"Rumple."

"He's pretty relentless." Regina agreed. "But I spared you today, and if you let me, and you stop being such a bitch, I might be able to protect you, Zelena."

Zelena rolled her eyes. "What's next, hair braiding and shopping on main street Regina?"

"Hardly. But… what if we start smaller.

"Oh?"

Regina opened her hands, and closed her eyes, allowing the light magic to rise through her fingertips as it had earlier that day, and engulf the farmhouse. Zelena instinctively jumped to her feet at that moment. Dread filling her belly. What was Regina going to do? Had she been double crossed after all? Was this a trap?

"What, what're you doing?"

Regina smiled, a real genuine smile. " I'm giving you a protection spell, Zelena."

And with that, Regina rose from her chair. "I'll let myself out, Sis."

Zelena stood in disbelief, watching her sister silently leave her house, and drive away into the night. For the first time in her life, someone had gone out of their way to protect her, and allow her to rest, and it had come from the one person she never envisioned.

She instinctively put her hand to her chest as she wearily climbed the stairs, suddenly overcome with exhaustion. She could feel it beating, strong as ever. Damaged, and bruised and battered, but still beating.

Maybe a change in heart was possible.


End file.
